The sunset shines on the Gulf of Aden, and the Navy's Urumqi warship escorts passing merchant ships along the way.
Thousands of nautical miles away, in a certain area of the South China Sea, the sky is high and cloudy, and the navy's aircraft carrier Shandong broke through the waves and plowed up layers of waves.
At the same time, in a certain area of the East China Sea, a real-combat exercise is being carried out intensively, and the Navy's Xiamen warship is flexible and maneuverable.
From the spatial point of view, they seem far away. If we stretch the timeline, we can find an intriguing intersection - the captains of these three warships, originally from a naval academy on the shores of the Yellow Sea, came from the deck of the academy's training ship.
Today, in a training ship detachment of the Dalian Naval Academy, the youth stories of the captains are circulating.
This detachment, which has guaranteed more than 40,000 cadets to accompany the ship for internship and foreign visits, has gone abroad many times to carry out long-distance training, and has tracks throughout six continents and three oceans, and is affectionately known as the "Maritime Mobile University" by the trainees.
Time passes, and the teenager is still there. Now, in this special "mobile university on the sea", another group of energetic young faces are about to sail to deep blue.
In this period of military camp observation, let us follow the people's navy, the only training ship unit, to the sea, and appreciate the youthful atmosphere of the people's navy cadets growing up.
Follow the "Mobile University of the Sea" on a long voyage
■ Lei Bin Wang Qiushu Chen Xiao
Formations for sea training. Photo by Chen Jiannan
Breaking into the sea and bloody
Where does the character of "Children of the Sea" come from
In the naval sequence, there are not many battleships named after national heroes. The Deng Shichang ship is one of them.
For Chen Wei, a 2021 graduate of the Dalian Naval Academy, the name Deng Shichang has a special weight.
During his military academy career, Chen Wei's first internship at sea was assigned to the Deng Shichang ship. Standing on the deck, looking at this calm sea, Chen Wei could always think of the illustration of the naval battle in the middle school textbook. When the warship docked for the first time and heard the name of the port, he was even more heartbroken - Liugong Island.
Here stands a huge statue of Deng Shichang, dressed in a military uniform, staring out over the sea.
In the fierce naval battle 128 years ago, the Japanese invaders used strong ships and cannons to break the Spring and Autumn Dream of the Beiyang Marine Division of "Asia's First" and carved the death of the Chinese nation.
In today's training ship detachment, trainees will go to Liugong Island for internship. Chen Wei remembered that time, the trainees came down from The Deng Shichang ship and looked at the statue of Deng Shichang, and everyone's expression was solemn.
In fact, this is not the first time that Chen Wei and Deng Shichang have "met". In junior high school, he participated in a week-long naval summer camp, and it was here that he set his ambition to "become a navy and defend his family and defend the country".
"Although the Battle of Jiawu was a humiliating history, Deng Shichang was a naval officer with great patriotic feelings and bloody courage." Chen Wei said that the first time he came, he knew where to go; this time, he understood how to go.
On that day, they visited the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle Memorial Hall and solemnly swore an oath in front of the "Naval Office". Back on the ship, the officers and men immediately organized a combat readiness pull. In the rapid alarm, Chen Wei and his classmates reacted quickly, rushed to their respective battle positions, and carried out actual combat exercises until late at night.
Changshan Island, Liugong Island, ZhongjieShan Archipelago, Yijiangshan Island... Looking at the sea areas through which the training ships sail, some are the places where classic naval battles broke out, some are training and confrontation training grounds, and there are also some special marine environments.
For the route setting of the trainees' maritime internship, the leader of the detachment gave this explanation: go to the ocean, understand the ocean, and then fight the ocean. Only by profoundly understanding the sense of historical heaviness, sense of responsibility for defending the land, and sense of urgency of the mission carried by the sea, can the trainees sail with the ship and grow all the way with a fearless spirit and a sought-after attitude.
During the long trip, the student Yao An was most impressed by the sampan training.
In the midst of the storm, a sampan, 12 students. At the order of the coach, each sampan exerted its power at the same time, quickly paddled and rushed to the distance. Yao An's Boat No. 2 took the lead, and the team members cheered loudly as they bypassed the turnaround point.
However, after 10 minutes, Yao An found that the position of the ship had hardly changed! It turned out that the coach chose to arrange for them to train at low tide. At this moment, they are going up against the tide, and if they slack off, they will be pushed farther by the tide.
"Which sampan can overcome the countercurrent and sail forward even a little, I will complete the task and drag them back with a motorized boat!" At this time, the walkie-talkie sounded, and in the whistling wind, the coach shouted loudly.
Yao An roared and encouraged everyone to overcome the tide with one drum. The players gritted their teeth and swung the oars hard. Unexpectedly, the force was too strong, and Yao An's oar broke from it! At this time, the shouting and paddling sound of other sampans continued to come from behind his ears, and Yao An did not have time to think much, and directly lay on the edge of the sampan, stooping at the waist, and paddling hard with the broken oar.
Beads of sweat, constantly dripping into the sea. Half an hour passed, and Yao An was exhausted. When they looked up again, they were close to their initial position. After returning to the finish line, Yao An and his comrades hugged each other tightly and wept.
Youthful smiling faces, hair with beads of water, wrinkled and torn hands... That picture was frozen by the comrade-in-arms with a camera. Later, Yao An clipped the photo to the page of the book, and on the back of it were written three words: Son of the Sea.
Sampan training, sailing training, swimming training, mast climbing training... Along the way, the trainees experienced a variety of marine training courses. Yao An not only experienced the power of the tides, but also experienced the attack of storms. He gradually realized: "Unlike sitting in the classroom reading and writing, the process of internship not only has the expected sea, but also the unexpected waves. The sea is unpredictable and mysterious. Naval cadets are born to break into the sea. ”
The coaches who often set up dangerous and difficult courses for the trainees said at the internship summary meeting that they saw three qualities in the trainees: bravery, bloodiness, and responsibility.
Departure ceremony. Photo by Huo Long
Line of Fire and Battle Position
Approach the battlefield of the future and practice "new muscle memory"
Should I listen to the captain's words?
In normal times, no one would ask such a question. At sea after graduation and internship, Chen Wei experienced a rare experience of "not listening to the captain's words".
It was a dive drill. According to the clues of the briefing, the approximate location of the disappearance of the "enemy" submarine is the northeast direction of a certain area, and the trainees quickly unfold the drawing and determine that the "enemy" submarine will enter the sonar search range after 10 minutes. The simulated navigator Chen Wei immediately gave the order to sail quickly east.
However, ten minutes passed, and the sonar area was always calm. At this time, captain Feng Liang walked into the wheelhouse with a sad face, "What, has the submarine found it?" "Will you run to the south?" "Look south!"
The captain's tone was tense, which made Chen Wei a little uneasy: Do you really want to give the order to go south? Will waiting any longer will it delay the fighter?
Inside the cab, everyone was looking at him. Chen Wei frowned and decided to do the final calculation. But no matter how he calculated, the "enemy" could not go south. Finally, he shook his fist and gave the order: continue to the east and fine-tune the course to the north.
Two minutes later, a report from the sonar department said that the "enemy" boat had been successfully captured.
Chen Wei's judgment became the key to this victory. In fact, the captain has long known the situation of the opposing sides, but he deliberately "swung a false shot" precisely to test whether the trainees have the ability to think independently. He believes that it is easy for a student to obey orders, but orders require a double blessing of judgment and courage. Business-based self-judgment is an essential quality for a naval officer.
Stepping down the "line of fire", Feng Liang patted Chen Wei's shoulder and joked: "Your battle position, you still have to decide!" Chen Wei's tightly locked brow finally relaxed.
Chen Wei became famous in world war I. When exchanging experiences with his comrades-in-arms, he described his feelings from the change of taste: in school, the marking work only had the fragrance of paper and ink, and here, it was more the fishy smell of seawater, the salty taste of sweat, and the pungent smell of gun smoke, giving people a strong sense of "oppression" and "bringing in", allowing him to integrate into the situation and dare to make decisions.
Chen Wei's sensitive sense of smell stems from the painful experience when he first went to sea. At that time, Chen Wei, who was seriously seasick, as soon as he smelled the smell of the oil engine, his stomach churned. During one voyage after another, Chen Wei vomited again and again, and his body gradually adapted to the "taste of the sea".
However, rather than adapting to the body, it is more difficult for the trainees to adapt to the sea from the mind.
"Have you seen The Three-Body Problem?" During a class, Gu Yunheng, head of the navigation department of the Jiangmen warship, raised such a question.
In the face of the curious eyes of the students, Gu Yunheng said that a three-dimensional hand can easily shred a two-dimensional piece of paper, which is a dimensionality reduction blow. As a future maritime commander, if everyone lacks information literacy, it is equivalent to one dimension less than the opponent, which is not a matter of achievement, this is a matter of life and death.
Therefore, the ship specially organized a practical assessment. The business department sets up specific circumstances and requires the trainees to use the combat command system for operation and disposal of all posts, all elements, and the whole process. There is no time limit for the examination, and the officers and men on the ship sit behind the cadets, and take the on-site examination, on-site teaching, and on-site reform until they all master it. Student Li Huanyu said bluntly: "After the longest exam of my academic career, now, the touch of the fingers to the mouse and keyboard is like a new muscle memory." ”
Late one night, zheng he dropped anchor at sea, an unknown ship suddenly began to move towards them, and Chen Qiufan, a value officer, quickly read the target parameters, judged it to be an anchored cargo ship, and took preliminary countermeasures. A set of processes down, calmly.
Chen Qiufan is the ship's deputy chief of communications, just graduated from the academy for a year. Seeing that Xuejie had such a clear line of thought, Li Huanyu gave a thumbs up. Chen Qiufan said with a little thought, "Have you ever thought about what to do if you approach us on such a night if it is not a ship but a missile that is close to us?" In modern warfare, time is measured in minutes and seconds, and maybe my temporary reaction ability is still not enough. Hearing this, Li Huanyu was shocked in his heart, and his eyes could not help but cast his eyes to the deep sea again...
From the classroom to the sea, the collision of ideas along the way allows students to constantly find the correct positioning and find shortcomings. And the frustration and urgency that arise from this will, in the final analysis, be transformed into a sense of struggle for their future military life.
Sailing competitions. Photo by Chen Jiannan
Stars and vision
Thinking ahead is the real lead
Suez Canal, Panama Canal, Strait of Gibraltar... These maritime fortresses, which are heavily inked in geography textbooks, are written in the berth log of Zheng He's ship.
This battleship is the "meritorious training ship" of the People's Navy and the "star battleship" of the detachment, and the cadets are accustomed to referring to it as "starship" for short.
Since its service, more than 30,000 cadets have added steel to this "starship" and quenched it. Two out of every three of the Navy's active surface ship command officers have interned here.
As its name suggests, the warship made many voyages, leaving behind stories of friendship and peace. In this regard, Guo Tiebao, director of Deng Shichang's teaching and practicing training, repeatedly told the trainees: "Chinese soldiers must have the ability to defend peace. ”
During his cadet period, Guo Tiebao participated in the circumnavigation of the Zheng He ship. What he remembered most was not the coconut wind and sea rhyme, nor the exotic style, but the profound torture brought by the far sea.
Once, Zheng He's ship organized a real-combat exercise in a waterway of an important strait in the western Pacific Ocean. Faced with unfamiliar sea areas, large winds and waves, poor sea conditions, and unfamiliar hydrometeorological conditions, Guo Tiebao and his classmates had many difficulties in carrying out business work, which delayed the training process. Another time, after crossing the equator, he found that because everyone had not yet switched their cognition to the southern hemisphere, the sea icon drawing was frequently wrong...
This brought Guo Tiebao deeper thinking: the navy is an international service, there is no "unfamiliar sea" in the future battlefield, and only by establishing a high-sea thinking and practicing strong business skills can we stand firmly and stand firm in various winds and waves. He demanded this from himself, and later from his students.
However, Guo Tiewan has recently felt pressure. During an internship last year, a cadet said bluntly: "Now, the equipment on warships is becoming more and more advanced, and many of the traditional operational skills we have learned may not be used in the future." ”
On the one hand, Guo Tiewan was pleased with the broadening of the students' horizons and the active thinking, and at the same time seriously discussed this issue with everyone. He believes that scientific and technological literacy is an important ability module for future commanders, but "people" are the decisive factors in the outcome of war. The systematic thinking and tactical application of the commander are indispensable at all times.
This line of thinking reflects the most basic values of the training ship detachment. Many trainees who are boarding training ships for the first time have had such a question: At present, the people's navy's new-type ships are constantly being installed, and some training ships are transferred from front-line troops. Can the trainees drive them on long voyages and be qualified for future positions?
In the face of doubts, Wang Guo, chief of the detachment's training section, usually told such a story: During World War II, some countries used cars to cover camouflage nets and simulate tanks to carry out training, and still trained a batch of outstanding tank soldiers.
"Thinking ahead is the real lead, in order to become a well-deserved 'star battleship'." Wang Guoping believes that the key to "mobile university on the sea" lies in the word "flow". It represents the concept of educating people with the times and changing the times, and also highlights the functional positioning of the detachment to connect colleges and universities and dock the troops.
As for how to "flow", according to his understanding, there are at least three meanings: ships, instructors, and cadets must "flow" -
In recent years, the training ships have taken the trainees on long voyages, and their footprints have reached unfamiliar distant seas in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and have incorporated the assessment of large winds and waves and the training of complex sea areas into the curriculum system.
All kinds of teaching, training, seminars and exchanges were widely carried out in the detachment, and they introduced a series of reform plans for the mode of maritime internship training to build a new model of "single ship + formation". During the real-force confrontation exercise at sea, they invited the leaders of ship departments from the navies of the three theaters of operations and the top professionals to guide the whole ship and act as "cameo" instructors for the cadets.
Cadets of different branches of the armed forces, at different levels, and in different professions continue to come here to add steel and quench, becoming the fresh blood flowing in the detachment.
During his graduation internship, Chen Wei met a group of Coast Guard cadets on the ship. Dressed in different uniforms and speaking different terms, they studied, trained, competed with naval cadets, and shared their experiences and methods of training at sea.
Standing on the deck, the magnificent track behind the warship touched Chen Wei's thoughts.
Chen Wei said: Perhaps one day, the army's tanks, the air force's fighter planes, and the rocket force's "Dongfeng Express" can all follow the navy ships to the far seas and carry out joint operations; Coast Guard cadet Tong Hao believes that there is no need to "revitalize the division and mobilize the masses" in this way; future naval battles should be unmanned, miniaturized, and precise operations, and naval commanders commanding unmanned combat platforms through the network is not even more fascinating?
The tide of the times is like an invisible hand, pushing them to think about more aspects of the ocean. Perhaps the topics discussed by each class of students are different, but when the students realize the glory of the mission and observe the future direction in the grinding of the sea, they can "graduate" from the sea.
Above the "starship" are stars, stars. Wang Guoping touched the words of the practitioners and smiled happily: "The road is at their feet." ”
News links
A certain training ship detachment of the Navy, led and managed by the Dalian Naval Academy of the Navy, is the only training ship unit of the Navy, which undertakes the tasks of naval growth officers, current officers of surface ships, graduate cadets and foreign military students at sea internship training, and plays a unique and important role in the naval talent training system, and is known as the "Maritime Mobile University".
Seek knowledge from the sea and march toward war
■ Chen Denan
The navy, born for the sea, is strong to the sea.
From the total annihilation of the Beiyang Marine Division in modern history, to the people's navy's impressive victory of "small boats fighting big ships" and "fighting bayonets on the sea," to today's warship formation advancing into the deep blue, history has repeatedly proved to us that the foundation of the navy's development lies in talent, and only by practicing at sea can we train elite troops and forge strong brigades.
Today, the situation at sea is turbulent, and the undercurrents are surging under the waves. The contest in the military field has shifted toward the sea by a large margin, and new operational concepts, equipment, and tactics have been constantly emerging at sea. The ocean is the "testing ground" of military technology, the "wrestling field" of military struggle, and even more the "quenching furnace" for naval officers and men to smelt steel.
As a new force in the development of naval construction, cadets in the military academy are in the basic stage of cultivating the ability system, and if they want to establish a real combat thinking, strengthen military quality, and expand the level of capability, they must constantly go to the sea, study the sea, and fight against the sea.
The flowers in the greenhouse cannot withstand the test of wind and rain. Allowing cadets to increase their talents in the midst of the storms and waves is an indispensable part of the education of naval academies.
One end is connected to the academy, the other is connected to the battlefield... Training ship units have special functions, and in order to undertake the heavy responsibility of educating people for war, they must find their own positioning, improve the design of the system, create favorable conditions, carefully build a maritime classroom, and seek benefits from the maritime classroom.
Create a classroom on the sea, and set up a clear orientation for the war to grasp the teaching. Training ship units should give full play to the functional characteristics of "being able to fight and teach at the same time," keep a close eye on changes in the maritime situation, stand at the forefront of combat training, unify combat readiness and training education, make the training content consistent with combat tasks, the teaching settings consistent with the battlefield environment, the training standards consistent with operational requirements, and promote the accurate docking of the "supply side" of personnel training with the "demand side" of the future battlefield.
Build a classroom on the sea and build a strong teaching team. The trainer first trains himself, and the teacher is also a model. The officers and men of the training ship unit are both ship members and instructors, and they must do a solid job in basic training, extensively expand their business, actively expand the dimension of capabilities, and explore teaching and research based on the characteristics of informationized warfare. We should establish a scientific and standardized appraisal and appraisal mechanism, carry out qualification certification, and select officers and men with broad vision and excellent professional skills to stand on the podium and preach and teach.
Create a maritime classroom and form a closed link for multi-party energy supply. The maritime classroom is an extension and expansion of the onshore classroom, the teaching content is further close to the frontier, close to the actual battle, relying solely on the training of ships, it is often difficult to achieve the best results, only the relevant departments of academies and universities, training ship units and front-line combat units to gather consensus, collective wisdom and concerted efforts, the trainees' far-sea internship as a special military action, actively integrate into the combat training system, and carry out confrontation exercises in an integrated manner, so as to ensure that the trainees can seek knowledge from the sea and march toward the battle without any distraction in the frontier practice center.
Source: China Military Network - People's Liberation Army Daily